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The Courage to Live with Uncertainty . . .
(From: The Philosopher's Stone)
Each day brings its own news, its own changes, its own uncertainties
and decisions. Not for any of us is life always or ever altogether
controllable or predictable or safe or certain. We all have to adjust to
changes. We all have to learn to live with some uncertainty. We all have
to acquire the courage to live life as it is, and not as we wish it were
--- for no day perhaps proceeds precisely as was planned.
(Few things proceed precisely as planned. Some experiences are richer
and finer and more meaningful than we thought they would be. Some are
more disappointing and less satisfying than we thought they would be --
but few days, few lives, are lived precisely as planned.) Every phone
call, every unopened letter, every message from every source carries
with it some uncertainty. We never know what the next call will convey
-- what the bearers of news will bring. But we cannot and must not sit
and waste life with waiting and worrying about everything that could
happen or everything that might happen.
We have to have faith; we have to have courage -- for it is as if every
scene and every set of circumstances were posted with this familiar
sigh: ",Subject to change without notice.", And we cannot afford to let
the good times, the happy times, the satisfying times be shadowed with
the worry that they won't last. A man must be grateful for what he has,
for what he has had, for what he can count on, and not despondent or
ungrateful for what he hasn't or for what he can't count on.
",Courage,", observed Samuel Johnson, ",is the greatest of all the
virtues.", And when asked why, he answered, ",Because if you haven't
courage, you may not have an opportunity to use any of the others.",
This is a time for courage, and for faith: for faith that, despite
changing scenes and uncertainties, there are great, eternal certainties,
great, eternal truths; for faith in the mercy and justice and goodness
of the Lord God who gave us life, and who gave it glorious meaning --
and who gives us strength to see it through, with joy and purpose here,
and with limitless and everlasting possibilities, if we will take it on
His terms, and do the best we can with what we have -- with faith, and
with the kind of courage that accepts both certainties and uncertainties
as they come -- with gratitude for what we can count on, and faith for
what we can't count on.
--- Richard L. Evans
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